Broadcast news reporter Bryan Darby was pleasantly surprised at the Visitor Industry Partnership (VIP) awards luncheon yesterday when he found that he was one of the awardees.

"I've been going to these VIP awards every year and it's quite humbling because I thought they always chose good people," he said.

VIP hands out awards four times a year to people for their contribution to the tourism product. An overall winner will be announced at a final awards banquet in May.

Mr. Darby was picked as a quarterly winner on the recommendation of American visitor Annalee Bundy for his historical and nature tours at Dockyard.

Part of the Tourism department's Fall into Spring programme, the tours take place November to the end of March every Sunday.

"One couple (the Bundys) came in the winter and it was pouring with rain and we went and got quite soaked and they didn't seem to mind. It was quite unusual," Mr. Darby recalled.

"To find people there waiting for your walk - it does make you wonder. But they were impressed I went ahead and did it anyhow just for two people."

"We have been visiting since 1969 and only in the past three years have we learned as much because of the tours given by Bryan," said Mrs. Bundy in her nomination.

"It is indeed rare to find such an informative tour guide who enjoys what he does so well. Bryan is an asset to Bermuda and especially Dockyard."

Mr. Darby said normally he would have cancelled the tour because of the inclement weather and had not expected to find anyone waiting when he showed up at Dockyard earlier this year.

"I have to know all the flora and the fauna, I have to remember all their names and have some anecdotes about Bermuda and its history. It started off as an exercise walking my dog and I kept finding tourists following me," he added.

Mr. Darby gets a gold VIP Sunshine Award pin, a weekend for two at Newstead Hotel and two tickets to VIP's "hotelier of the year" awards banquet in May.

"All of this is very nice because I was born in Dockyard - a month before war broke out between my mother and father."